Sunday, April 13, 2014

An Appealing "Fantasticks"

"The Fantasticks" -- MTC MainStage -- Thru May 4

Shanna Ossi. Jack Doyle, Carissa Massaro, Jacob Heimer, Lou
Ursone

and Tony Lawson. All photos by Joe Landry

Over five decades ago, a musical
with a limited number of characters and a minimal set opened off-Broadway at
the tiny Sullivan Street Playhouse. It ran for 17,162 performances, becoming
the longest-running musical in American theater history. The show was “The
Fantasticks,” with music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones,
and it now can be seen in a touching, oh-so-intimate production at Westport’s MTC MainStage.
It is the venue’s last production before MTC moves to a more commodious
location minutes away.

The musical’s draw is its
allegorical simplicity: a boy, Matt (Jacob Helmer), lives next door to a girl,
Luisa (Carissa Massaro). Their fathers, Bellomy (Jack Doyle) and Hucklebee (Lou
Ursone), feign a feud, complete with a wall between their properties, in a bit
of reverse psychology, seeking to foster an alliance between their children by
seeming to frustrate it. As the musical opens, the children are ripe for
romance, at least the story-book version, and so the fathers contrive an
abduction of Luisa so that Matt can save her and thus bring their courtship to
fruition. They enlist a bandit, El Gallo (Tony Lawson) to orchestrate the
abduction, and he, in turn, calls upon an aging, line-challenged actor, Henry
(John Flaherty) and a faux-Indian, Mortimer (Jim Schilling), who specializes in
artless death scenes, to pull off the staged abduction and rescue. The first
act ends beneath a cardboard moon with love triumphant.

The moon sets, the sun rises, and
with it comes harsh reality and doubts. The romance is off. Matt sets out to
see the world while Luisa becomes enamored of El Gallo. Life must teach the two
young people some harsh lessons before they again find each other and, sadder
but wiser, realize where their hearts belong.

The musical is loosely based on
Edmond Rostand’s “Les Romanesques,” but it also harkens back to medieval drama,
when troupes of traveling actors went from town to town putting on plays
initially based on liturgical themes -- the mystery, miracle and morality plays
– and then broadening the topics to embrace local folklore in the form of
Morris dances. Various productions of “The Fantasticks” emphasize – or
de-emphasize – the traveling show aspect of the musical – LongWharf’s
staging of the show several years ago was heavy on magic and the sense of
carnival. MTC’s offering, under the direction of its executive artistic
director, Kevin Connors, gives a nod to the musical’s roots, with the Mute
(Shanna Ossi) dressed in a quasi-Harlequin costume and the players posing and
miming at the show’s opening, but this aspect of the show – a sense of magic
and mystery – is minimal, perhaps because of the proximity of audience to cast.

Although there is a difference
between physical and aesthetic distance, the former cannot help but influence
the latter, and in the case of MTC, distance, or lack of same, between actors
and playgoers makes it difficult to create an illusory landscape – what’s there
is, well, right there in front of you, sometimes mere inches away.

Carissa Massaro

That being said, there’s a lot to
like about MTC’s “Fantasticks,” starting with Massaro’s Luisa. She gives, as
one of my students suggested after the show, an Alice-in-Wonderland quality to the role, a
subtle performance that displays the full range of her character’s emotions
using deft gestures and well-controlled body language. It is here that MTC’s
limited space works to its benefit, allowing actors to convey emotions as if
they were being filmed (in constant close-ups) rather than having to play to
the balcony. Massaro’s dulcet voice and engaging personality gives Luisa a truly
girlish glee that is worth the price of admission, especially since, unlike
some actors who find MTC’s limited space daunting and thus focus on anything
other than the audience, Massaro, whether she is singing or delivering lines,
looks her audience in the eyes. The effect is often riveting.

As the two fathers, Doyle and
Ursone work well together, especially in the comic number, “Plant a Radish,”
which is artfully choreographed by Kathy Callahan, who does a wonderful job
with the space she’s given to work with (especially since the small set is
ringed with blue footlights). Doyle and Ursone both walk the thin line between
straight performance and farce, offering the audience both realistic moments of
care and concern for their children and subtle buffoonery.

Tony Lawson

Lawson’s El Gallo is both suave and
world-weary, a nice mix that the actor conveys with restraint, and again,
Callahan’s choreography serves the cast well in the “’Round and ‘Round” number
in which Lawson and Massaro whirl about, using the entire stage.

Shanna Ossi and Jacob Heimer

As the love interest, Heimer gives
a workmanlike performance, although you never sense he is truly smitten with
the girl next door: his passion is a bit restrained – the “Soon It’s Gonna
Rain” number is thus vanilla rather than strawberry parfait -- and his
suffering in the second act is just a bit too low-key. Low-key, however, cannot
be said of Schilling and Flaherty, who ride their characters for all they are
worth. Special kudos to Flaherty, who stepped into the role of Henry with just a
day’s notice.

And then there’s The Mute, also
known as “the wall,” the character who speaks nary a line throughout the entire
performance. One might think this a thankless role, but Ossi is an enchanting
presence on stage, often speaking volumes with her eyes. Using body language,
Ossi’s mute speaks quite clearly – and endearingly.

MTC’s “The Fantasticks” is a
smile-filled two hours of theater. Though the material is closing in on being
eligible for Social Security, it is actually timeless, for children will always
rebel, parents will always meddle, and the young will always have to pass
through the alembic of life to learn what…and who…really matters.

“The Fantasticks” runs through May
4. For tickets or more information call 203-454-3883 or go to www.musictheatreofct.com